Cabinet approves ratification of 2nd amendment to APTA

The Cabinet on Monday approved a proposal for ratification of the Second Amendment to the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) aiming to get duty facilities on some 10,677 items.

The APTA is a preferential trade agreement among the countries in the Asia-Pacific region

The approval was given the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at the Cabinet Room of the Jatiya Sangsad with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, reports UNB.

Briefing reporters after the meeting at the Bangladesh Secretariat, Secretary of the Cabinet Division (Coordination and Reforms) N M Ziaul Alam said as per the second amendment, Bangladesh would get duty facilities on some 10,677 items in different APTA countries while under the previous provision it got the facilities on some 4,648 items.

He said that under the 2nd amendment, Bangladesh would get duty facilities on some 3,381 items from India, on 2,372 items from China and on 3,757 items from South Korea with duty facility from 5 per cent to cent per cent.

The cabinet also approved in principle the draft of 'The Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute Bill, 2017' to replace the Livestock Research Institute Ordinance 1984, which became obsolete with Supreme Court verdict scrapping the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution in 2010.

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